Words by Richard “Treats” Dryden

You could probably learn a thing or two about sexual relations from listening to Maxi Priest and Shabba Ranks’ “House Call” in 1991. However, getting it on, or getting it in, was the furthest thing from my mind when I first heard their collaboration at age 10. My father—a Jamaican DJ from New York, newly transplanted to Los Angeles—made me a mixtape with some of Shabba’s reigning hits like “Housecall” and “Mr. Loverman,” along with a bunch of tunes over the Telephone Love riddim. I was smitten by his seamless transition of the original “Housecall” into its 12” remix and the various versions of “Mr Loverman,” such as the David Morales Ragga Hop Mix. I might have been too young to remember “Housecall” gaining mass appeal in NY: it was Shabba’s core dancehall releases resonated deeper in my Caribbean neighborhood of Flatbush, Brooklyn.